High prices keep buyers away from animals

SIALKOT-Though Eidul Azha is fast approaching, there is no rush of buyers in the local markets of sacrificial animals due to skyrocketing price hike.The local people said that the high prices of sacrificial animals were keeping the buyers away from the sacrificial animals in the markets established in Sialkot district.Though Eidul Azha is now fast approaching, the sacrificial animals including lambs, goats, sheep, cows, bulls and camels are reaching in a small number. The small number of sacrificial animals is also the major cause behind their high prices.The people were of the view that the prices of sacrificial animals though available in short number were very high as compared to their last year prices. They said that the prices were out of the reach of common man, forcing them to join the collective scarifies.According to the lucrative banners displayed there, most of social and religious organisations have offered different packages for collective sacrifice of the cow from Rs10,000 to 12,000 per share with the expenditures of butchers.Some daily wagers said that also these packages were unaffordable for them following the sky-rocketing price hike in the country, however, they would try to afford the offer of joining the cost-sharing sacrifice in such sky-rocketing price hike.Therefore, the trend of the collective sacrifice is gaining momentum as the people were preferring to participate in the cost-sharing scarifies due to the rising prices of the sacrificial animals caused by the short number of these animals in local markets.On the other hand, the traders are setting up their markets of the sacrificial animals on the grounds in congested residential and commercial areas of Sialkot, Daska, Sambrial, Bhopalwala, Uggoki, Satrah, Pasrur, Chawinda, Badiana and surrounding areas.The traders claimed that there was almost 50 percent increase in the prices of the sacrificial animals as compared to their last year's prices due to which it had become very hard for the common man to perform the religious obligation. The price of a normal sized goat was between Rs20,000 to Rs30,000 and the price of a normal sized cow was between Rs50,000 to 100,000 per cow. The rates of goat having a big growth was also very high and the traders and middlemen were demanding their big prices.A Bahawalpur-based trader Noor Hussain said that the number of sacrificial animals was very short at the moment in the markets due to which their high prices were keeping away the people from these Bakra Markets.Another middleman Allah Ditta from Nawab Shah (Sindh) said that the prices of the camel have also soured up to a great extent due to which the people were considering to share the cost of cows and the situation was also badly affecting white-caller people.A Daska based trader Afzal said that there was a shortage of sacrificial markets. Several people were still hopeful that the prices of sacrificial animals will again come down when the animals from the other cities will come.The animals' merchants were of the view that the local administration has shifted the markets to the outskirts of the urban areas. Due to which, the people were reluctant to go to the Bakra Mandies. Thus the people are reluctant to reach the markets, they said.